1.6.1-Sarah1281
Brick!Club 1.6.1 The Beginning of Repose I still don’t get what this “Madeleine has an infirmary in his house” business is. His rooms seemed pretty sparse last we saw them. Or does he own an entire building and only uses a small bit for himself while the rest is an infirmary? That makes it sound like he was the one to start a hospital or at least had it moved like his former employer the Bishop. A burning fever had come on for Fantine apparently. I gathered that pretty early at the beginning of last chapter, thanks, and the passing out just made it impossible to miss. It’s kind of creepy that Madeleine was in her room for an hour waiting for her to wake up but at least he wasn’t staring at her but rather at the crucifix helpfully hung over her bed. And because he’s Madeleine his expression is full of “pity, anguish, and supplication.” He blames himself for everything bad that has ever happened to her, of course. And suddenly someone has flipped a switch and that blackguard Madeleine has become saint Madeleine to Fantine. I sure hope that switch can’t flip the other way. Fantine doesn’t even care about how she is even when Madeleine is finally taking notice and trying to help. She’s just so happy to have this basic comfort. Could Madeleine really not have found a different crucifix? I bet he has at least one in literally every room. I wonder how people reacted to Madeleine just now noticing Fantine and trying to find out everything about her from people who have known for a year. Did he chastise anyone for what they did? Tell his forewoman to stop firing people who are trying to redeem themselves? There’s no reason to think Fantine was the only one that happened to. I don’t know what’s so sublime about smiling with missing teeth. Javert wrote a letter to his mentor and people thought he was quitting. I wonder if that’s true or if he’s being spiteful and complaining about Madeleine or something. Oh no. Madeleine meant well but that’s an amateur mistake! Months of not paying the Thenardiers and he sends them more than twice what they asked for overnight! They’re never getting Cosette back now! I suppose at least Thenardier still thinks someone might like Fantine and doesn’t realize how pitiful she has become? That’s better than anyone else she knows thinks of her. How is it that Eponine and Azelma got sick twice and poor mistreated Cosette was not ill? It boggles the mind. I’ve seen in some stories the plotline that Cosette shares her mother’s weak constitution but I think her miraculous ability to not get sick when everyone around her is gives lie to that. And Madeleine just sends another three hundred francs! I get that, for whatever reason, he doesn’t want to/can’t go himself but why can’t he hire someone else to go and fetch her? And now we get more virgin talk because that still has not gotten old. Apparently the nuns judged her at first but she was so down on herself and pitiful that she won them over. I’m…not sure how I feel about that. On the one hand it’s good that they don’t hate her anymore but I don’t think that she should have had to be so hard on herself in order to achieve that. Fantine also seems to be forgetting that without the outrageous demands of the Thenardier she wouldn’t have had to turn to “evil” even with wage cuts. I wonder if Madeleine really expects Cosette to show up “any day now.” If the Thenardiers should ever fall into poverty somehow, they really have no excuse. Thenardier really should stop with the gambling. He’s just not good at it. I wonder why Madeleine is shuddering at being told to get Cosette since he was already trying to and the last time he was shuddering it was when Javert was nattering on about some random convict. I don’t really think that having snow shoved down your clothes will make you desperately ill because you’ve been secretly ill for years but been avoiding it and it’s that one instant that seals your fate. I’m not a medical expert (though I might still know more than what experts back then knew) but that just doesn’t sound like how these things work. And having the people you love near definitely isn’t a cure-all though perhaps Madeleine is just lying to Fantine. He lies to her a lot. Finally Madeleine gets Fantine to sign rights to Cosette to whoever has the paper! And he’s going to send someone! If only another mysteriously bad thing weren’t about to happen!